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MONROVIA-The nation is saturated with mood of shock following the killing of a man identified as Matthew Mulbah by the Liberia National Police (LNP). Social media is awash with video footage of the scene of the incident in the Congo Town when police officers moved to the house where the deceased was living reportedly following a “distress” call.

A police officer is heard giving instructions for the man to be calmed down after which he later shot. “Calm him down,” the officer was heard as saying in the video, but later instructed “shoot him down.” Sounds of gone shots were heard immediately after the instruction from the officer, as few civilians were seen in the video looking on.

Before then, the late Mulbah was heard with a growling voice, yielding and shouting, apparently trying to resist whatever was being done to him.

However, Police Inspector General Col. Gregory Coleman took to social media Wednesday evening to announce the distressing news regarding the situation in which a citizen was shot dead by a police officer in a ‘self-defense’ condition.

He told the nation how an LNP officer on Wednesday fatally shot a suspect who stabbed three officers during a violent confrontation near the old LACC building in Congo Town.

He said the incident happened at about 2:58 p.m. after the LNP received a distress call reporting that an officer had been stabbed multiple times.

Col. Coleman disclosed that responding officers ordered the suspect to surrender, but he ignored their commands and charged at them with a cutlass, wounding a second officer in the arm as he tried to shield his head.

“A third officer managed to seize the cutlass from the suspect, but the man reportedly pulled out a concealed knife from his trousers, stabbing the officer in the thigh and attempting another strike toward his abdomen,” the Police chief said.

In the face of what the police Inspector described as “immediate mortal danger,” he said one of the officers opened fire, killing the suspect instantly and preventing further harm to his colleagues.

According to him, “The injured officers and the suspect were rushed to the John F. Kennedy Medical Center, where one officer remains in critical condition undergoing surgery. The suspect was pronounced dead after emergency treatment.”

He used the medium to express condolences to the suspect’s family, saying the LNP has launched a full investigation into the incident, while urging calm and called for prayers for the wounded officers.

As citizens weighed and figured out the information, different narratives of who the deceased began to emerge, leaving citizens befuddled as to the truth of the story.

Counter-claims emerge

The family of Mulbah has accused the LNP of spreading “deliberate lies” about the circumstances surrounding his death.

According to an eyewitness account, Mulbah was shot multiple times in his stomach and dragged outside his home naked after police officers allegedly used excessive force while trying to subdue him.

The incident has sparked widespread outrage, with many calling for an investigation into the LNP’s handling of the situation.

The family claims that Mulbah was unarmed and posed no threat to the officers. “This incident is part of a broader pattern of alleged police brutality in Liberia,”

In recent months, there have been multiple reports of police using excessive force against civilians, resulting in injuries and fatalities.

In a response to Police Inspector Coleman’s accounts of the incident, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) Secretary General Jefferson T. Koijee said what happened “underscores a troubling moment within our national security system one that calls for reflection, accountability, and reform.“

He discounted the Police narratives, stating that the death of Mulbah was “not an accident or an isolated act of misconduct, but one sanctioned under the authority and command structure of the Liberia National Police.”

He said “Justice must not only be demanded but delivered,” adding that the LNP owes it to Matthew, his family, and to every Liberian who believes in the rule of law and the sanctity of life.

Koijee, a critical voice of police actions under Col. Coleman, wondered as to what crime Matthew committed that justified his brutal murder.

According to him, “The death of Matthew is not the first such tragedy, but part of a consistent pattern of police-sanctioned killings of innocent citizens under the stewardship of Gregory Coleman.”

He claimed that under Col. Coleman’s leadership, Liberians continue to witness what he called “these sanctioned murders.”

He recounted instances where some Liberians lost their lives at the hands of the LNP years back, naming some of the victims as Essah Massaley and Abraham Kerkula during the Kinjor Massacre on February 28, 2024.

He also recalled the situation with 17-year-old James Kandy, whom he said was murdered in Rehab on July 3, 2025 as well as 17-year-old Mohammed Manobah, killed in Brewerville on May 9, 2025.

Koijee argued that these “continuous deaths are not accidents; they are the bitter fruits of a corrupt system, planted and nurtured under Gregory Coleman’s leadership.”

“It is now an open secret that he has filled the ranks of the Liberia National Police with known criminals and street gang members who wear the uniform not to protect, but to prey upon the very citizens they swore to defend,” he said.

The CDC SG stated the police have become a gang of criminals rather than a force for safety under Col. Coleman.

“Innocent lives are being lost because criminals have been given authority, guns, and power, all sanctioned by leadership that has turned a blind eye to justice,” Koijee noted.

He said the death of Mulbah is yet another painful reminder that Liberia is bleeding from within its own security system.

He quoted eyewitness account as saying  “Matthew became mentally unstable, possibly from cerebral malaria. We tried to get him to the hospital but he refused, saying he didn’t want to leave his room.”

He went further to say “Police were later called and tried to forcibly enter his room. It became violent, and three officers deliberately overpowered him. He was shot multiple times in the stomach in his own room and dragged outside naked.”

Koijee described what happened as a chilling account that paints a very different picture from the false narrative being peddled by Col. Coleman.

He accused the Police chief of deliberately and shamelessly falsifying the facts, by claiming that the deceased stabbed a police officer.

“This blatant falsehood will be formally addressed by the family of Matthew Mulbah,” he wrote.

Another CDC stalwart, Aloysius Howe who joined the fray in a writeout wondered why the police are taking away lives instead of protecting them, referencing the shooting of Mulbah.

Such situation, according to him, is a clear example of “a police force has been compromised and turned into a political clout.”

Howe claimed that Matthew was sick, terribly sick, and the kind of sickness he had was one that can make someone mentally unstable and act uncontrollably, one that can give someone extra strength to do unforeseen things.

“People with this sickness can even uproot a steel door from an entrance, they are capable of doing anything when that sickness grab a hold of them. I have seen first hand people with this sickness do impossible things,” Howe wrote in an apparent effort to demystify the police account.

According to him, “Matthew family and friends knew what he was suffering from, and knew that the current mental state he was in, he was uncontrollable, and it was dangerous for anyone who is not trained enough to deal with such situation, or go near him.”

He stated it was the reason the family invited the police, because “they were of the conviction that the police were trained enough to help them restrain Matthew, and get him to the hospital, but little did they know that the police they trusted to help save the life of their brother and friend, the very police would have taken his life due to callousness, recklessness, stupidity and lack of basic training.”

He argued that citizens in Liberia aren’t safe under the current police force if their “first response to a situation like that is to pull the trigger of a gun and fire live bullet at a civilian.”

Howe, former aide to former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, said “shooting a gun, most especially where it is not an arm robbery operation, and when the person is not armed with a gun, should be the last thing a police should do, most especially shooting directly at a civilian.”

He tried to teach the police a bit of policing, saying “There are lot of different methods taught to police officers at the training academy to deal with those kinds of situations, and shooting a gun is the last thing a police officer is taught to do when all methods have failed.”

Howe said there’s no where police is taught to shoot to Kill a citizen who isn’t armed, even if he or she was resisting arrest or acting uncontrollably.

“This is beyond politics and is concerning,” he said, adding “If care is not taken, the reckless attitude of Gregory and how he has gotten almost all of the police officers to follow his way of thinking, many Liberians will loose their lives from the current police force unprofessional attitude, and they will want to justify their actions.”

Howe indicated Matthew could have been in the hospital currently getting medical attention for the illness he was suffering from, and not in the mortuary “if the police were trained.”

Like Koijee, Howe said the police will have to answer questions for the death of Matthew, stressing “and they must provide answers and take accountability for Matthew’s death.”